Fine Lines
Taki Theodoracopulos

I’ve received a very interesting letter from Nicholas Farrell, author of the best biography of Benito Mussolini yet written. It begins by introducing a good friend of his, a poet by the name of Paolo Gambi, a close relation to the last mistress of Lord Byron, Teresa Guiccioli. Teresa was most likely the last female affair the great Byron had before dying 200 years ago in Missolonghi, Greece, fighting the Turks for Greek independence.

Gambi lives in Ravenna, as does Nicholas Farrell, where the greatest poet ever (after Homer), Dante Alighieri, lived and is buried. For anyone unlikely to be familiar with Dante’s work—by this I mean not regular Takimag readers, who are all-knowing—Dante’s fame derives from having written the world’s most famous eschatological thriller, Dante’s Inferno. Paolo Gambi worships Dante and has written a letter about poetry to Donald Trump, urging him to use poetry in his inaugural. (I sincerely hope that The Donald has heard of Dante.) Poetry, writes Gambi to Trump, is not merely an artistic endeavor; it is also a guide for eternal truths. Dante envisioned a world emperor who stood before God while uniting a divided world. A world without poetry, also according to Paolo Gambi, is a crooked place where the beauty of the human spirit is stifled. He adds, and I totally agree, that woke has drained the world of beauty. The best way to counter the ugliness of woke is through poetry.

“In a world denuded of class and grace and beauty, poetry could save the world.”

What methinks is that The Donald would be doing himself a great favor if he read Paolo’s poem on January 20th. It would prove to those leftist so-called media types who hate him that there’s more to him than he’s let on. And he could go a bit further and invite Gambi to D.C. and have him read his poem to those mostly ignoramuses of the capital. In a world denuded of class and grace and beauty, poetry could save the world. Having a poet like Gambi at the inaugural would be a rallying cry to stop the vulgarity and perversion that dominate our culture. Caesar Augustus commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid, while Lorenzo de’ Medici used Michelangelo and Botticelli. Go ahead, Donald. Contact Gambi and have him read the following poem:

A Toast to the Nation That Chose
by Paolo Gambi

Oh land too bold, too big to rig
Where hopes are vast and visions big

No crooked paths nor sloppy schemes
Can dim the light of your daring beams

I write to you, though not your kin
You echo abroad, a global voice
For what you breathe, the world takes in

Birdbrain whispers, slippery lies
Peekaboo truths in lamestream skies
You’ll drain the swamp, its lyin’ maze
You’ll turn deranged nights to brighter days

Drill, baby, drill—into the deep
Not just for you, but for the globe
Where hearts hold treasures that never sleep
You forge the threads of our shared robe

The land was ours before we were the land’s
It shaped our hopes with unseen hands

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Stand firm for those who dare to see

We have memorized America
Its echoes hum through every saga

Each day we go about our business
Seeking the sparks of life’s vast richness

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores
It called us forth to open unseen doors
When day comes, we ask ourselves
What truths we’ll find on future shelves

The world looks on with grateful eyes
That woke shall no more befoul the skies

Let art be cleansed of poisoned streams
The bridge between human and divine schemes
In your light, the free world gleams
A tapestry stitched of boundless dreams.

This originally appeared on Taki’s Magazine.

 

 

Taki is an ex-Greek Davis Cup player as well as a former captain of the Greek national karate team. He has won the U.S. national veterans judo championship twice, and in 2008 was world veterans judo champion 70 and over. Since 1967, when he began his career with National Review, he has been a columnist for the London Spectator, the London Sunday Times, Esquire Magazine, Vanity Fair and Chronicles Magazine. In 2002 he founded The American Conservative with Pat Buchanan. He has covered the Vietnam War as well as the Yom Kippur War and the Cyprus conflict of 1974.

 

 

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